Is
this a review of a film by Bergman? No, it is not 
the opposite is more likely to be the case. However, there
actually WERE Swedish aspects and Danish as well
In fact the "Nordic Voices with a View to the World"
made it possible to listen to an actual "cultural
bridge".

Review
in the the daily newspaper Berlingske Tidende, October
23, 2000

By Ursula Andkjær Olsen

Saturday night at the Royal Library, one of the arrangements
from the series of concerts "Voices of a Thousand
Years" took place. The title of this was Nordic Voices
with a View to the World, performed by the two odd singing
elves (so to speak), Gudrun Holck (Denmark) and Eva Åström
Rune (Sweden) who sang, whispered and cried in a style
completely of their own: a sort of old Nordic folkloristic
crossover including percussions and didgeridoos. But most
important of all, a performance with an indisputable and
irresistible power!

The two female singers in the ensemble were immensely
suited both for each other and for the music: Gudrun Holck,
the beauty from earth, with a voice like a cutting torch
(and I mean this in a very positive way), cutting the
lines and the contours of the music with stunning clarity,
and the almost angel-like transparent Eva Åström
Rune, with her tender and soft voice, mastering the old
traditional Swedish melody lines in such a way, that you
believed yourself to be in another time and another place.

Having started the evening by gathering the audience by
means of very distinct cries of calling in the immense
lobby, the actual concert took off with a small à
cappella programme, consisting of four Nordic folksongs,
performed either completely "naked" or in such
extremely well developed and lush arrangements, using
their voices in so many ways and so brilliantly that one
had a serious doubt whether this indeed was à cappella!!
But above all the very simple hymn "Eja" was
most touching; sung individually by the two in a Danish
and Swedish version.

Next was "Pucksånger  Lockrop" from
1989, by the Swedish composer Karin Rehnquist. The songs
have attracted quite some attention when performed internationally,
as the composer with her "art music" uses some
very loud and strident cries of calling, originating from
Swedish folklore. Gudrun Holck, Eva Åström
Rune, and the Swedish percussionist Kenneth Franzén,
endowed the work with a beautiful intimacy.

"Juicy" and powerful compositions (by the two
ladies) for the entire ensemble followed the break in
a fine copious folklore/pop manner. Once again, listening
to the two elflike women scampering about in the opulence
of their own voices was a pure joy, in the same way as
they were competently, lively and imaginatively accompanied
by Kenneth Franzén and the two didgeridoo- and-everything-else
playing gentlemen, Jim Gage and Robert Davis.

Gudrun Holck and Eva Åström Rune, vocal,
Kenneth Franzén, percussion, Jim Gage and Robert
Davis, didgeridoo. The Queens Hall at the Royal
Library, Saturday the 21st of October, 2000.